Lady Gaga’s Massive Pre-Grammys Metallica Tattoo — Real or Fake?

Lady Gaga’s performance alongside Metallica at the 59th annual Grammy Awards on February 12 was a highly-anticipated event, especially as a follow-up to the pop star’s high-flying stunts during the Super Bowl LI halftime show, and in the hours leading up to the “MetalliGa” extravaganza, as Gaga dubbed it, the pop star showed off a massive tattoo on her back of a Metallica-inspired moth. But, is the ink real or fake?

Lady Gaga’s tattoo takes up the majority of her back, extending from her left shoulder blade to her right side, and features a black and grey image of a death’s-head hawkmoth.

In order to prepare for her Grammys performance with Metallica, the singer noted on Instagram that she was “Gonna listen to Metallica all day and party with my friends and then play with them at the Grammys,” and it was on February 12, just before she took the stage with Metallica, that Gaga showed off her gigantic moth tattoo on Instagram, captioning the black and white photo, “The Moth & Metallica #ink #tattoo #MothIntoFlame #MetalliGa #metal #grammys.” Judging by her hashtags, it appears Lady Gaga’s back tattoo was inspired by Metallica’s track “Moth Into Flame,” from the heavy metal band’s tenth studio album Hardwired…to Self-Destruct. The pop star also showed off the moth tattoo on the red carpet, arriving at the Grammys in an interesting backless (and largely frontless) black leather and feather getup.